importing h264 into ae, should i "decode/transcode" first?

I don't have the greatest camera(a Kodak zi8 pocket camera), but I am recording in 59.94fps 1280x720 and the camera encodes them in h264 mov files. So I make my project in after effects, then export mov files using jpeg with audio. I get a file about 2.8 GB.

Then I open it up in adobe media encoder, select custom, h264 mov, progressive, maximum bit, aac audio, square 1:1 pixels, 59.94fps, and I think that's it. The size is pretty small, about 19mb, but the quality is just terrible. Isn't it pretty much double encoding the file with h264 since the original file was also h264? What would be my best settings for size/quality? I want something probably under 200mb. It could be higher maybe. These videos are for YouTube, if that matters.

Did some more research,I probably should convert my files to mov animation codec before using them in after effects to "remove" previous encoding right? Then I can export to some sort of lossless and use media encoder with h264. Does that around good?

You can go straight from AE into Media Encoder by dragging/opening your AE project in Encoder, saving the encode to jpeg. 19mb is a pretty small file, try bringing your .aep file into it and use one an h.264 preset for youtube upload and see if you get better results.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

"I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."
---THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

Thank you, but I guess I wasn't that clear. Pretty much I'm asking if I should convert my original files that I'm taking off my camera to something different. Because, the camera encodes them in h246, and I'm guessing with a pretty small bitrate, as they are all quite small. Then I was saying that that would make sense, because if I didn't I would pretty much be encoding them twice, with h246, which is never good. So my main question is, should i "decode" my original files?

When I open it up in adobe media encoder, select custom, h264 mov, progressive, maximum bit, aac audio, square 1:1 pixels, 59.94fps, and I think that's it. The size is pretty small, about 19mb, but the quality is just terrible. Isn't it pretty much double encoding the file with h264 since the original file was also h264? What would be my best settings for size/quality? I want something probably under 200mb. It could be higher maybe. These videos are for YouTube, if that matters.

I geared my original answer towards this question as that's where I think you are losing the most of your quality.

As to the decode, that won't gain you anything. Basically, if uncompressed footage is a 10, H.264 is an 8 and putting it in an uncompressed file(animation) just makes it an 8 in a container that goes to 10.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

"I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."
---THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

Okay, thank you, so no matter how I encode the finished video, I will lose quality correct? Unless I use a lossless method with an end result of 2.8 GB.

That doesn't exactly seem right, there should be a way I could export without losing any quality, but is not that big of a file since my original files where all about 25mb x6. So the best option would be to get a better camera with less encoding.

A camera with less encoding will start you with higher quality to start, but larger files. Encoding to a lossless will keep your quality as it is, but you do end up with larger files, nature of the business. I don't know what you are doing to create quality that is "terrible". Try the presets, I use Vimeo&Youtube presets all the time and the quality seems fine.

Johnny Cuevas, Editor
Thinkck.com

"I have not failed 700 times. I have succeeded in proving that those 700 ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work."
---THOMAS EDISON on inventing the light bulb.

Well i can't use presets, because there are none in cs4. I'm uploading HD videos, but they dont look HD. Its because the original videos were okay, but not super HD. So when encoding okay videos, you get bad looking videos. The okay videos weren't terrible, but when encoding then they look bad. Actually, the video I was just working on, I ended up uploading the complete lossless video. It was 2.8 GB and took 12 hours to upload =P